Catholic Family Devotions

Understanding the Day

Season

Time After Pentecost

Week

Week 21 of Time After Pentecost

Rank

Simple feast

St. Hilarion, Abbot, is observed in the Time after Pentecost, a season when the Church reflects on the life of the Church guided by the Holy Spirit after Easter. This time is focused on growth in Christian virtue, discipleship, and the ordinary unfolding of the Church’s life. The celebration is ranked as a Simple: in plain terms, it is a recognized feast that may be kept locally or in communities without displacing higher-ranking liturgies. There is no octave or vigil attached to this entry, so the observance is typically confined to the day itself in family or parish devotions. Simple celebrations like this help connect ordinary family life with the wider feast calendar, providing a gentle rhythm of remembrance and formation.

Introit (Daily Prayer)

Esth 13:9-11
In Your will are all things, O Lord, and there is none that can resist Your will; for You have made all things, heaven and earth, and all things that are under the cope of heaven. You are Lord of all.
Ps 118:1
Happy are they whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.
Glory Be to the Father…

Commemoration St. Hilarion
May the pleading of the blessed Abbot Hilarion for us, together with the partaking of Your sacrament, protect us, O Lord, so that we, mindful of his way of life, may obtain the help of his intercession.
Through our Lord…
Commemoration St. Ursula and Companions
Grant to us we beseech thee, O Lord, at the intercession of thy holy Virgins and Martyrs Ursula and Companions: that what we touch with our lips we may receive with pure minds.
Through our Lord…

Weekly Prayer

Weekly prayer content will appear here once it is scheduled.

Weekly Formation

Anger and Meekness

The Way of Darkness

Anger
Sinful anger is a disordered movement toward revenge or punishment beyond what justice and charity allow. The emotion of anger can arise without sin, but it becomes vicious when deliberately nursed into resentment, hatred, cruelty, or uncontrolled retaliation.

The Way of Light

Meekness
Meekness moderates anger so that strength remains under the command of reason and charity. It is not weakness or indifference to injustice; it enables correction and defense of the good without hatred, cruelty, or loss of self-possession.

Saint & Feast

Principal celebration

Hilarion

St. Hilarion, Abbot

anchorite and saint who spent most of his life in the desert

Born: 0291-01-01 · Gaza City
Died: 0372-01-01 · Paphos

Hilarion (291–371), also known by the bynames of Thavata, of Gaza, and in the Orthodox Church as the Great was a Christian anchorite who spent most of his life in the desert according to the example of Anthony the Great (c. 251–356). While Anthony is considered to have established Christian monasticism in the Egyptian Desert, Hilarion, who lived in the coastal area near Gaza, is considered by his biographer Jerome, to be the founder of Palestinian monasticism - regarding this claim see also Hilarion's contemporary, Chariton, founder of monasticism in the Judaean Desert. Hilarion is venerated as a saint exemplifying monastic virtues by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

Learn more about Hilarion

Today in Church History

Beatification of Dominic Barberi
1964Beatification
On October 21, 1964, Pope Paul VI beatified Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist priest known for his role in the conversion of John Henry Newman to Catholicism.
Holiness and zeal can lead others to the fullness of truth in the Church.

Catechism

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism teaches that every human life is sacred from conception until death, because each person is willed for his or her own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God. Murder is gravely contrary to personal dignity and the holiness of the Creator; direct abortion is gravely contrary to the moral law; intentional euthanasia is gravely contrary to personal dignity and respect due to God; and suicide is seriously contrary to justice, hope, and charity and is forbidden by the fifth commandment. From conception, the child has the right to life; because the embryo must be treated as a person, it must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed like every other human being. Legitimate defense may be necessary to stop an unjust aggressor from causing harm, especially when others’ lives or the common good are entrusted to our care. As we pray and reflect together, we are also called to seek peace: to do all reasonably possible to avoid war, reject crimes in armed conflict, and remember Christ’s blessing on the peacemakers.

In the Catechism, we learn that God is love and lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Created in God’s image, men and women are given the vocation, capacity, and responsibility for love and communion. Our sexuality touches the whole person, body and soul, including our capacity to love, to procreate, and to form bonds with others. Each person is called to acknowledge and accept his or her sexual identity. Man and woman have equal personal dignity, and their differences and complementarity are ordered toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. In marriage, the union of man and woman reflects the Creator’s generosity and fecundity. Jesus calls us back to the purity of God’s original plan, teaching fidelity not only in outward actions but also in the heart, and affirming that what God has joined together should not be separated.

¶ 2327

Today's Mass Readings

Open the day's Sancta MissaDivinum Officium · Divino Afflatu - 1954View readings